iPhone 8 Plus vs. Galaxy Note 8: The Great SmartPhone Battle

The Great SmartPhone War is On Once Again

The rivalry between Apple and Samsung is the most talked about face-off in the smartphone industry. Recently, both companies release their flagship models for the year. At the end of August, Samsung, the Korean tech giant, unveiled the last version of its Galaxy Note series: The Note 8—a powerhouse smartphone with all the tools you’d expect a Note-series phone to have.

With Samsung releasing its latest smartphone offering, it was only a matter before Apple came up with own smartphone offering for the year. So, on September 22nd, Apple, the American tech company, released the latest version of the iPhone: the iPhone 8 plus. Ever since then, people have been comparing the Galaxy Note 8 with the iPhone 8 plus to determine which phone’s better. We don’t want to be bias. So, we won’t say outright which one’s better. Instead, we’re going to compare a few aspects of the two phones to help you make an informed decision.

Design and Screen

As far as the design is concerned, and iPhone lovers may cringe on this fact, there is no contest—the Note 8 wins hands down. The iPhone 8 plus screen is essentially the same as its iPhone 7 plus counterpart, albeit with one crucial difference. Unlike the previous year’s model, the iPhone 8 has a 5.5in Full HD LCD display. Additionally, the iPhone 8 Plus boasts the Apple’s True Tone Technology—the same tech used in the recent iPads. This technology automatically adjusts the screen’s white balance to make reading easier on the eyes in various conditions.

Designed to be durable, the iPhone 8 Plus is water resistant and has a noticeably wider and heavier screen than the Note 8. The iPhone 8 Plus is available in three different colors: silver, gold, and space gray. The iPhone 8 Plus’ 1080p LCD screen offers a wide color gamut and is bright and fairly colorful. But, most people aren’t too impressed with the display and this is one of the reasons Apple is moving to OLED for the iPhone X.

We now come to the Note 8, probably one of the sexiest phones you can buy today. The Infinity Display of the Note 8 stretches it curves and nearly edge to edge, as it meets the side. Compared to the iPhone 8 Plus’ LCD screen, the Super AMOLED screen on the Note 8 is not just sharper, but it also renders more of the SRGB color gamut. This is 204 percent compared to the 122.5 percent for the iPhone 8 Plus. Though, the display of the iPhone 8 is slightly more accurate with a Delta-E rating of 0.25, compared to 0.5 for the Note 8. However, there are other advantages of the OLED such as wider viewing angles and deeper blacks.

The Galaxy Smartphone has always excelled in the aesthetics department and the Note 8 is no exception. The Galaxy S8’s ‘Infinity display’ design that peels back the side bezels with a screen that cover almost the entire face of the phone, is used even more effectively in the Note 8. This has resulted in a 6.3in QHD+ display, with image quality second to none. One area where the iPhone 8 Plus beats the Note 8 is the color options. The Note 8 comes with only two color options: Orchid Gray and Midnight Black.

So, considering what’s been said above, it would be fair to declare the Note 8 as the winner in terms of design and display screen.

Camera

Smartphone’s are utilized a lot for taking selfies. So, it’s natural for buyers of Note 8 or iPhone 8 Plus to be concerned about camera quality. In terms of capability, the cameras of iPhone 8 Plus and Note 8 are at parity. However, better contrasts and more vivid colors in the shots gives iPhone 8 Plus the edge. Both phone use 12-megapixel OIS-capable sensors in the rear, with one primary difference—the iPhone 8 Plus uses dual sensors while Note 8 employs the rear sensors.

There are few areas where the Note 8’s camera performs better such as capturing sharper images in some settings, more detail in shadows, and letting users adjust the intensity of the blur effect for portraits. However, there are few things that you can only do in the iPhone 8 Plus such as editing Live Photos and adding special effects to them. Also, there’s difference in the rear camera’s f-stop on the Note 8. However, this does not affect the picture quality and light sensitivity too much. Overall, the iPhone 8 Plus wins the Camera quality and feature battle, which means it’s all square.

Special Features

On to the tie-breaker. There are so many aspects that we could have chosen to compare the two to give a final verdict but since people tend to be interested in the ‘additional’ features a lot, we’re going to see what special features the two phones boast. The Galaxy smartphone has always been known for its ‘special’ features and the Note 8 is no exception.

A noticeable accessory that comes with the Note 8 is the S pen that allows users to take up to hundred pages of notes using a screen-off memo feature. Also, there are multiple ways to unlock the device, including facial recognition, iris scanning, and fingerprint sensor. Another great feature of this phone is App pair, which users can use to open to apps side by side with a single tap. Special features in the iPhone 8 Plus include support for augmented reality apps, and Touch ID.

Final Verdict

The Note 8 has a better design and display but iPhone 8 wins the Camera battle and there pretty much at par in terms of ‘special’ features. So, you’ll have to test-try the phones yourself to determine which one’s better for you.

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